Two things are worth knowing before the item lists, and both of them decide more marks than technique does.
On those, a wrong selection cancels a correct one. On everything else a wrong answer costs nothing, which means a blank is strictly worse than a guess. Candidates routinely apply the penalty rule to the whole test and leave marks behind on the items that never had one.
PTE reports communicative skills across the whole test rather than by section. Summarize Spoken Text and Write from Dictation both feed your Writing score; Read Aloud, back in Speaking, feeds your Reading score. Preparing section by section leaves gaps in places the tab headings do not warn you about.
Two formats of the same idea: a passage with words removed, and a bank to choose from. No negative marking, so every blank should be filled even when you are guessing. Collocation gets you further than meaning — the answer is very often the word that habitually sits beside the one before it.
One correct option, no penalty for a wrong one. Low value per item relative to how long the passage takes to read, so this is the type to move through briskly rather than perfect.
This one is negatively marked: a wrong selection cancels a right one, and the item cannot go below zero. Select only what you can defend from the text. Two confident answers beat four hopeful ones.
Find the paragraph that could open with no prior context — it names things rather than referring back to them. After that, follow the pronouns and the connectives; each remaining paragraph refers to something already introduced.
A lecture, then a written summary within a word range. Scored for Listening and Writing together. Take notes on the structure — claim, then supports — rather than trying to capture sentences.
Same rules as Reading: the multiple-answer variant is negatively marked, the single-answer one is not. Read the options before the audio starts if you are given the chance, because you will not get a second listen.
A transcript with gaps, filled while you listen. No penalty for a wrong answer, so never leave a gap empty. Spelling counts.
The highest-value item type in the section. Short sentences, heard once, typed exactly. Scored for Listening and Writing, credited word by word, and almost purely a trainable skill — which makes it the best return on practice time anywhere in the second half of the test.
On the multiple-answer items, yes — in both Reading and Listening, a wrong selection cancels out a correct one. Single-answer multiple choice, reorder paragraphs and the fill-in-the-blank items do not penalise a wrong answer, so you should never leave those blank.
Write from Dictation. It is scored for both Listening and Writing, the sentences are short, and it is almost entirely a trainable skill rather than a knowledge one — which makes it the highest return per hour of practice in the second half of the test.
Roughly 30 minutes each. Reading is a fixed set of items you pace yourself through; Listening is paced partly by the audio, which plays once and does not wait for you.
Yes. PTE reports communicative skills across the whole test rather than by section, so Reading items feed the Reading score and several Listening and Speaking items feed it too — Read Aloud most notably. A weak Read Aloud can pull down a Reading score you prepared for properly.
Yes, and for Summarize Spoken Text and Write from Dictation you should. The erasable booklet is provided. For the shorter multiple-choice items, note-taking usually costs more attention than it returns, because the audio plays only once.
Our PTE mock runs these item types on Pearson's published counts and timings, and the report separates what you lost to comprehension from what you lost to the marking rules. The first session is free.
This guide is written from the PTE Academic test format published by Pearson, in our own words. For the official wording, see Pearson's published test format. MockLive AI is an independent practice tool and is not affiliated with Pearson.